Gremlins Edition [4K Ultra HD + Blu-Ray]

Product Information

Audio is included on the 4K disc in the same English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix that was available on the previous Blu-ray edition. It offers excellent clarity, clean dialogue, a medium-wide front soundstage, lightly atmospheric use of the surrounds (except when the chaos begins, when there’s very nice directionally and movement), and a full sound. Low end is moderate but sufficient. This isn’t a mix that really wows, but it’s never sounded better and it serves the film well. Audio is also available in French, German, Italian, Castilian Spanish, Latin Spanish, Czech voice-over, Hungarian, and Russian 5.1 Dolby Digital. Subtitle options include English (for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing), German for the Hearing Impaired, French, Italian for the Deaf, Castilian Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Latin Spanish, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, and Thai. Also available is a Photo Gallery, two Theatrical Trailers (2:08/1:04) and another Trailer (1:30) for Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Directed by Joe Dante ( The Howling, Explorers, Matinee), written by Chris Columbus (director of Home Alone and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and writer of The Goonies), and produced by Steven Spielberg, Gremlins is a fairly typical example of a kind of teen comedy/horror filmmaking that was common in the 1980s. In its day it was cute, clever, and darkly edgy. It was also slammed for being too violent for its target audience, leading the MPAA to establish a new PG-13 rating for films. Gizmo (and his eventual Gremlin counterparts) were created using practical and mechanical puppets, that—again for the day—were pretty groundbreaking. Gremlins even has a fine Jerry Goldsmith score. But there’s also not a lot to it; the plot is paper thin and the film feels surprisingly dated at this point, even refreshed in 4K. Note: The screen captures were taken from the Blu-ray disc and do not represent the 4K Ultra HD transfer.

All of this “deep” thought aside, Gremlins is a wildly fun movie, and one of my staple Christmas watches for the last 20+ years. The movie gets better and better with age, and the new 4K UHD release only sweetens the pot. Sadly I really was hoping for Warner to release Gremlins 2 at the same time on 4K UHD, but I guess we’ll just have to make do with the original for now. Gremlins” was a 1984 comedy/fantasy film with a nice touch of horror, executive produced (and presented) by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is a filmmaker who really needs no introduction. This movie was directed by Joe Dante, best known for also directing films like “Piranha” (1978), “The Howling” (1981), “The Burbs” (1989), “Matinee” (1993), and [this film’s] sequel “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” (1990). The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus. Most know Columbus for directing films such as “Adventures in Babysitting” (1987), “Home Alone” (1990), “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993), “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001), and its first sequel “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002).Gremlins was shot using Arriflex 35 IIC cameras on 35mm film. The source for this release was made from the original camera negative which was scanned at 4K resolution and then utilised for the creation of this Ultra HD Blu-ray release. The disc presents a native 4K 3840 x 2160p resolution image in the widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and uses 10-bit video depth, High Dynamic Range, and is encoded using the HEVC (H.265) codec. We reviewed the Region free UK Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Gremlins on a Panasonic 65DX902B Ultra HD 4K TV with a Panasonic DMP-UB400 Ultra HD Blu-ray player. Inventor/Salesman Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) stumbles across a mysterious fluffy creature called a Mogwai in an old Chinese artifact shop, and ends up slipping it out under the owner’s nose (against his recommendation) as a Christmas present for his son Billy (Zach Galligan). Billy is ecstatic about his gift, and even accepting of the strict rules that the shop owner’s son gave Randall. Don’t subject them to bright lights, don’t get them wet, and DO NOT feed them after midnight. However, as these things go, the new pet (dubbed Gizmo) is soon subjected to a little bit of water, prompting a form of mitosis wherein Gizmo spawns dozens of fluffy little clones. These clones are not exactly nearly as nice as Gizmo is though, and after Billy sends off one of the clones to a lab where it is subjected to the before mentioned feeding after midnight, things get out of control. Wing's shop that were previously obscured, and the enchanted small-town world of Bedford Falls—excuse me, Kingston Falls—is more Reitman Squared Scene Commentary again features video commentary by Ivan and Jason Reitman on two scenes from the film, with Jason providing interstitials about his connection to the film and his father. Once again, a full commentary would have been more preferable. Scene Cemetery not only carries over all of the previous deleted scenes, but adds a number of new ones as well, presumably from a workprint. Since the film went through a number of reshoots, plenty of deleted material was leftover. Despite the wealth of material, there are still a few things missing. Ray being possessed by Vigo and driving the Ecto-1 like a maniac, more of Louis’ cousin played by Eugene Levy, the oversized “frog” ghost in the underground tunnels, the full version of Ray and Peter catching the ghost jogger, the full version of the Ghostbusters in the jewelry shop, the Ghostbusters returning the Statue of Liberty and receiving a key to the city, and the original version of Vigo walking out of the painting during the climax. Whereas most if not everything that fans have wanted to see in the deleted scenes from the first film are almost all accounted for, Ghostbusters II still has a ways to go when it comes to major deleted material.

Stephen King nailed John Carpenter’s Halloween as an expression of the traditional ‘campfire horror tale.’ The narrative launch pad for Gremlins is the cautionary scare fable, like The Monkey’s Paw. A person is put to an ethical test, and when he fails, all Hell breaks loose. The twist here is that Columbus and Dante don’t sweat the moral mechanics, and instead exploit the idea’s abundant potential for absurdity. We’re eager for the Mogwai to get wet and be fed after midnight, to see chaos loosed on the movie screen. It’s a horror picture, yet Delightful. Gremlins is a very good mid-80s film that I might not have loved but still an enjoyable viewing experience every time I’ve seen it over the years, and has excellent special effects with the Mogwais. Jason’s Sneak Peek features the director on the set briefly speaking about how excited he is to be making the film. Last is a series of trailers for the film. It should also be noted that each of these bonus discs comes with subtitle options in English, English SDH, Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), and Thai. Randall tells his wife and son “Billy Peltzer” ( Zach Galligan) there are three strict rules he must follow to take care of the Mogwai. The rules include not getting it near bright light, not getting it wet with water, and lastly to never feed it after midnight. Let’s just say one of those rules will be broken and as a result, some not-so-cute or friendly creatures are spawned – referred to as gremlins. These pesky little creatures decide to cause all kinds of mischief all throughout the small town where the Peltzers reside. Along the way, Billy will get some help from his co-worker and obvious crush “Kate” ( Phoebe Cates). The local law enforcement does not prove to be much help and it’s essentially up to these two young adults to save the day. I won’t get into any further detail to avoid any real spoilers, for those who have never seen this film. Making Of – this archival feature showcases director Joe Dante, producer Steven Spielberg, and actors Hoyt Aston, Phoebe Cates, and Zach Galligan. This is a fun and short piece.

Gremlins UHD 4K Blu-ray Picture

Gremlins is a blast. The film still has a devoted following thirty-five years since it was released for a reason. I consider it to be one of the funniest family films to ever be released and fans of Joe Dante will adore it. There are not that many family films that I re-watch every year, but this film makes the cut. Video: How’s it look? Six of the aforementioned alternate TV takes from the original 1987 broadcast version of the film are presented separately. Entertainment journalist Geoff Boucher hosts the Who You Gonna Call? retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd. The Ecto-1 featurette is dedicated to showing a team of experts restoring the original car to its former glory. Following that is the Library Ghost Scream Test from the original Laserdisc, a set of Multi-Angle Explorations and Storyboard Comparisons, and extensive Photo Galleries featuring a total of 939 stills. Finally, there’s the music video for Ray Parker, Jr.’s Ghostbusters, four trailers—all presented in HD, and a promo for the 1999 DVD release featuring Ivan Reitman. DISC EIGHT: BONUS DISC #2 (BD) even if the scan were down-rezzed to 1080p. But in true, native 4K, the result is by far the finest In terms of video quality on this 4K UHD Blu-ray release, it is a presentation that does come across solid and pretty impressive with the amount of newfound detail. However, the fact the aspect ratio is incorrectly in 1.78:1 when claiming to be in the original 1.85:1 is a bit of a bummer. It’s also a bit confusing as to why the actual film seems to have been cropped at the top and slightly on the sides. The cropping and aspect ratio issues are forgivable (to me), but will surely upset some purists. I personally really don’t mind it. Hanging with Hoyt on the set of Gremlins– a few minutes of Hoyt messing around on camera while they were filming the EPK.

The movie was shot on 35mm film using the Arriflex 35 lic and Panavision Psr R-200 cameras with spherical lenses, according to IMDb. Every couple of years we hear about a revival or remake of Joe Dante’s Explorers, the wonderful fantasy about junior high schoolers that fly an amusement park capsule into outer space. I hope something happens, just to get Paramount off its duff for a Blu-ray of the original show. So many genre favorites have hit Blu-ray this year, that anything seems possible. The Take 2 Access screenings have our house lights up, volume turned down and freedom of movement for families attending.

Gremlins UHD 4K Blu-ray Sound

Audio Commentary with Eric Reich, Troy Benjamin, Chris Stewart, Ashley Victoria Robinson, and Sean Bishop Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. Bonus materials are primarily found on the Blu-ray Disc and are ALL presented in SD (standard definition) video with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound. These include: Filmmakers’ Audio Commentary with Director Joe Dante, Producer Michael Finnell, and Special Effects Artist Chris Walas

Additional Scenes – a little over ten minutes of cut scenes from the film. There is an optional commentary by director Joe Dante. The Glasgow Film Theatre have announced their Christmas line up to get the city in the festive spirit next month. Lastly, the practical special effects hold up really well here for a film celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. It’s a very solid 4K presentation in terms of video quality, the cropping and incorrect aspect ratio are forgivable, and it in comparison to the Blu-ray can be impressive. Still, it’s not quite as amazing visually as some of you might have expected it to be. I personally find it to be impressive and a nice improvement. Sorry. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code of Gremlins gives this comedy classic the best presentation yet possible, showing how top quality hard-media home video blows away compressed video streams.evaluated the 1080p disc's video, nor can I say whether I would have given it the same score as Dustin, had I been the reviewer Further addendum: The "Video" score of 2.5 has been copied from Dustin Somner's 2009 review. I have not newly Seen on a full 4K monitor, the picture pops more strongly than it did in 99% of theatrical screenings — the scan pulls more detail and ‘atmosphere’ out of the film than one would think possible. The added visual and audio detail allows us to examine the clever effects and scan for gags and references we might have missed on earlier viewings. Gremlinsof course has no computer-generated effects. Since most of the fantasy material was filmed live on a set with puppets and mechanical rigs, there are few optical dupes beyond fades and dissolves, and those are so clean they’re difficult to detect.